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Essay / The wandering and the themes of inner solitude in the battle against the forces of nature
At first interpretation, The Wanderer lends itself to a depressing and lamentable reading from the hands of the poet who wrote the words of a poor and lonely man. traveler fighting against his internal struggle of loneliness and the external force of nature. This wanderer longs for the company he kept before battle and death took him. He has lost his lord and his war companions, the bustling markets, the feasts and the treasures. This social circle no longer exists, leaving the wanderer alone to contemplate aspects of sadness, nobility and wisdom. The Wanderer is composed of two voices: that of the narrator and that of the wanderer. But the poet writes both. The poet's characterization of the wanderer allows readers to experience on paper the symptoms of Anglo-Saxon depression. However, upon rereading (and a few times later), a touch of humor is found in the harsh words of the wanderer and in the poet's story. The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons began in 597, and this poem is a didactic response to the once widespread paganism. In this article, I will begin by establishing the wanderer as a pagan and, then, explore how the unconscious humor of the poet's words presents a Christian remedy to the pre-Christian world of paganism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay… Destiny is Firmly Set This is a glaring contradiction between Christian and non-Christian ideas. The aspiration for God's mercy is strictly Christian, while believing in an inexorable destiny is pagan. Fatalism does not assume any circumstance that a human face is random, but predetermined by the natural or supernatural. God is seen as the being who regulates the outcomes of nature. In contrast, the Holy Scriptures of the Bible say that God created man with the responsibility for free will and its consequences. By deciding to emphasize the traveler's trust in destiny, the poet distances the traveler from Christianity. No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will devote himself to one and despise the other. other. You cannot serve God and money. A good Christian must denounce earthly vices and trust only in the Lord, because nothing will accompany him to the grave except his good deeds. The wanderer's obsession with material possessions and virtues, such as companionship and wealth, places him in a world that resembles everyone else's. Not once in the poem does the traveler mention a personal accomplishment. Instead, his fixation lies in his sorrows and happy moments from his past. When the wanderer sleeps, he dreams of his lord and the gifts he once received. The wanderer, desperate, wishes for the “fruits of the earth”, the company of his comrades in combat and riches. Furthermore, he laments his loneliness, instead of turning to God, in lines 29-31, when he says: "He who knows pain understands how cruel the sorrow of a fellow traveler is to one one who has few friends by his side. » Once again, the wanderer disregards fundamental Christian ideals in his mournful monologue. Now that I have addressed the wanderer's non-Christianity, I will turn my attention to the satirical techniques used by the poet. Satire relies on irony, exaggeration and caricature. And the poet uses each of these elements to characterize the wanderer. From line 65, the wanderer considers the characteristics of a "wise man"....A wise man must be patient, not too hot-hearted, nor in a hurry to speak,...not too stingy,and never eager to commit until it was safe. The traveler insists that "an excellent virtue is to close tightly the treasure chest in one's heart, whatever he thinks." Why, then, does he express his laments and difficulties aloud? His words are in quotation marks, in the poet's attempt to distance the narrative from the spoken word and expose the disagreement between the soliloquy and the wanderer's actions. Choosing to emphasize this disconnection, the poet parodies the pagans of the wanderer's world. The wanderer is not only a man but a symbol of the fall of paganism. Loneliness, loss, and depression plague the world, and Christianity offers the remedy. The supposed characteristics of wisdom, according to the wanderer's speech, cannot be found inside the wanderer himself. The poet described the wanderer as miserably melancholy and lonely. Yet the words chosen are strangely melodramatic, revealing an unconscious humor. In fact, he exaggerates and undermines the wanderer's depression. Yes, the traveler feels alone, but as he is traveling on the sea, there are other travelers with him. Humor lies in the way a man thinks or feels. Although this can be serious for the person suffering from it, it is an object of humor for the observer. A man alone cannot face the tormenting nature explained by the wanderer. Nature, according to the solitary dweller, is gloomy and apocalyptic, not as generous as God created it. The “icy seas” and “icy frosts” torment him and increase his depression. His body hungers for a happy soul, but his words speak of a right to companionship in line 29, when he asks to be “rewarded with comfort.” The first half of the poem explores his melancholy, while the second half realizes the inevitability of suffering. The narrator recounts his ideas as a wise man at the end of the poem: A good man restrains his words, recounts his misfortunes not too soon, revealing his inner heart before knowing the best path, a count who acts with courage. At the conclusion of the narration, the poet draws attention to the irony of the Wanderer. The solitary man is considered reckless, simply because he speaks before he knows the best way to do so. The wanderer's altered tone in line 58 shows his disorientation with his own depressing syndrome. Beneath the wanderer's reflection on the end of creation, there is a strange similarity to the New Testament Book of Revelations. In Revelation, John has a vision of Jesus; he is left in ecstasy. The traveler also experiences a pleasant vision that distracts him from his sorrows. However, its scene is empty of Christian values. The wanderer's dream is found in lines 39-45 and focuses on his lord and the treasures he was given in his company. This vision makes him aware of the fleeting nature of life, as well as its most pleasant and most discouraging moments. The Book of Revelation teaches this same idea. As creation began to fall into God's hands, the forces of nature, such as lightning, fire, and hail, ravaged the earth. The wanderer, caught in a storm of hail and snow, declares that "a wise man must know the misery of this age when all the riches of the world will be wasted...deprived of pleasures." Because the wanderer is not allied with God, the poet implies that the first will one day see this end. The Book of Revelation establishes that there will be the creation of a New Earth and a New Heaven where there will be no suffering. However, once again the poet exposes the naivety of the wanderer. Because he is not a Christian, he does not know the considerations of the Book of Revelation on the end of Creation. But, despite its lack.